TScratch: a novel and simple software tool for automated analysis of monolayer wound healing assays

Cell migration plays a major role in development, physiology, and disease, and is frequently evaluated in vitro by the monolayer wound healing assay. The assay analysis, however, is a time-consuming task that is often performed manually. In order to accelerate this analysis, we have developed TScrat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BioTechniques Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 265 - 274
Main Authors: Gebäck, Tobias, Schulz, Martin Michael Peter, Koumoutsakos, Petros, Detmar, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Future Science Ltd 01.04.2009
Subjects:
Algorithms
angiogenesis
Animals
Cell Line, Tumor
cell migration
Cell Migration Assays
Cell Movement - physiology
Cells - classification
Cells, Cultured
Computer Graphics
curvelets
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Humans
image analysis
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Mice
scratch assay
segmentation
Software
User-Computer Interface
wound healing
Wound Healing - physiology
ISSN:0736-6205, 1940-9818, 1940-9818
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Cell migration plays a major role in development, physiology, and disease, and is frequently evaluated in vitro by the monolayer wound healing assay. The assay analysis, however, is a time-consuming task that is often performed manually. In order to accelerate this analysis, we have developed TScratch, a new, freely available image analysis technique and associated software tool that uses the fast discrete curvelet transform to automate the measurement of the area occupied by cells in the images. This tool helps to significantly reduce the time needed for analysis and enables objective and reproducible quantification of assays. The software also offers a graphical user interface which allows easy inspection of analysis results and, if desired, manual modification of analysis parameters. The automated analysis was validated by comparing its results with manual-analysis results for a range of different cell lines. The comparisons demonstrate a close agreement for the vast majority of images that were examined and indicate that the present computational tool can reproduce statistically significant results in experiments with well-known cell migration inhibitors and enhancers.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ObjectType-Technical Report-3
content type line 23
ISSN:0736-6205
1940-9818
1940-9818
DOI:10.2144/000113083